Lightning
by Harmonics
Summary: Even some of the toughest people can be afraid of thunder and lightning.


Hey there everyone! So I have recently had a go at more one shots. I normally do a crap job, but I'm trying really hard, and Astoria / Draco just interests me a lot as a writer and an avid Harry Potter fan, so I'm going to write a lot with the two of them in it.

This one is set during HBP when Draco is beaten by Harry in the bathroom.

Disclaimer: All characters belong to J.K. Rowling.

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_**Thunder**_

_He wasn't sure what he was doing lying there on the bathroom floor. He wasn't even sure why he was in the bathroom to begin with either. All he really knew was that he was in pain. Mass amounts of it, and he could hear some one vaguely, whoever it was they sounded panicked. _

_Draco opened his eyes slowly, he couldn't see much. Mostly a gray mass, oh right, the bathroom ceiling. He looked over to his left. Potter was standing there. He hadn't noticed that he was awake yet. He looked worried, he must have been the one he had heard panicking, what a little nancy boy._

_Draco coughed, and he felt his lips wet. Did he just cough up blood? It didn't matter, he was in to much pain to really focus on anything at the moment. Draco could hear yelling now as someone else entered the bathroom. He wasn't sure who it was, but he saw a black blur hurry towards him. They started whispering something, he couldn't tell what they were saying. Whatever it was, it was sort of soothing in a weird kind of way. Whoever had been whispering to him yelled at Potter to get out. _

_Draco watched him run out of the bathroom, past another person who was standing in the entrance. He wasn't sure who that was either. And as everything around him went black, he decided he didn't really care either. _

"You can't sleep forever Malfoy. You're going to have to open your eyes sooner or later you know."

Someone was calling his name. Someone was trying to wake him up. He wanted to sleep. That's all he wanted was some sleep. He wanted to stay in the infirmary as long as possible. He didn't want to go out to the school where everyone would ridicule him for being beaten by the famous Harry fucking Potter.

Why couldn't they just leave him alone? Hadn't he suffered enough? He probably already had the biggest scars marring his pale chest. Wasn't that enough punishment? For him to remember every day how he lost to scarhead? Draco took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down enough so that he could fall asleep again.

"Draco! I swear to Merlin, if you don't wake up I'm going to sit on your chest until you do!"

"I won't wake up then, you'll end up killing me." He snapped. He wasn't even sure who he was calling fat yet, but he would find out soon enough. And he did, when he felt a hard object hit the side of his head.

"You did not just call me fat!" Draco opened his eyes, there looking back at him were a pair of smoldering light green eyes. They looked half worried and half angry, probably because he'd just called whoever it was fat.

"I don't know why I even bother with you." The girl leaned back, and Draco could see her full face now.

"Don't you have something better to do then wake me up," Draco turned his head slightly to look at the clock, "At three in the morning." He muttered. The girl looked at him, she bit her lip for a second, a nervous habit he had come to know very well, "What do you want Greengrass?" He asked the youngest sister, Astoria, again as she sat there silently.

"Well I was almost worried about you, but I see that you're fine now, so I'm just going to leave!" She spat getting up abruptly.

"You were worried about me at three in the morning?" Draco asked.

Astoria stood there looking down at him in his bed. He looked weak and tired, and she really shouldn't have woken him up. She was worried about him, of course she was. But she had to admit to herself that wasn't the reason she came down to the infirmary to see him. Now she just felt selfish and guilty about waking him up because of her own fears.

"Are you just going to stand there and look at me?" Draco asked, it was obvious his patience was getting thinner and thinner every moment she stood there silent, "Fine then, I'm going back to sleep." Draco turned around and closed his eyes.

He hadn't noticed it before when he had his eyes open, but now he could hear the rain on the roof of the castle. The wind was horrible too, and now he wasn't going to be able to sleep, and apparently, neither was Astoria. This was apparent when he heard the first thunder strike.

Astoria let out a loud yelp. It was a good thing no one else was in the infirmary either. Not that it mattered, she probably woke up the Slytherins in the dungeon the way she yelled. Although he was tired, and still in pain, Draco couldn't see himself loosing this one opportunity he had.

"Is little Greengrass afraid of the storm?" Draco asked sneering as he sat up in the bed to look at her.

She looked visibly shaken. Almost as if she had seen someone be killed right in front of her. Another flash of lightening illuminated the infirmary and with it came another loud crash of thunder. Astoria's eyes grew wide with fear, and Draco could swear he even saw them water with tears.

This girl was legitimately afraid of storms. She was afraid of storms like he was afraid of Voldemort, not that he would admit that to anyone he knew. Astoria looked at Draco pleadingly, who wasn't even a fraction upset by the storm. Storms had never frightened him before in his life.

"Please, I wouldn't come down here if I didn't think I had to." Astoria whispered loud enough for him to hear.

"Don't you have friends?" Draco asked, he had never really seen her with anyone before, but she was a Slytherin, and most Slytherins tended to have some sort of group.

"No, I don't really have any friends anymore." Astoria muttered.

"You don't have any friends?" Draco asked, almost astounded. Normally the pretty wealthy girls held most of the power in the Slytherin house.

Astoria came from a wealthy family, and she wasn't ugly either. Her lush dark brown, almost black curls fell elegantly over her shoulders in waves, and her bright green eyes seemed to illuminate everything in a dark room. She wasn't short, but she wasn't tall either. And she wasn't stick thin like most of the girls Draco knew, she had hips, and they suited her perfectly.

"Why? Didn't you used to hang out with the Donovan girl and that… whatever his name was, last year?" Draco remembered the three of them slightly, you never saw one without the other.

"Torres," Astoria said, "His name was Torres, and no I don't hang out with them anymore. They won't talk to me." She said although it looked like she didn't want to admit it.

"Why?" Draco asked, Merlin, why did he even care? Maybe it was because she was wearing a short silk nightgown, very much like the one she was wearing when they had first met. He liked that nightgown very, very much.

"Because I talk to you." Astoria said very clearly, so he knew he hadn't just thought that was what she said.

"Because of me?" Draco asked.

"They said that you were no good. That you were a disgrace to the pureblood name, and that you and your family were loosing their power, and if I was seen talking to you I would end up a laughing stock, and they didn't want to be a joke to everyone else." Astoria whispered.

"They said all of that?" He asked. They said he was loosing his grip? That his family was a laughing stock now?

"Yes." Astoria said numbly looking down at the ground.

"Why are you still talking to me then?" Draco asked angrily, "Why don't you just do what the rest of them are doing and ignore me? I wouldn't blame you! Everyone is!" He yelled angrily at her.

It was the truth. Everyone had started to avoid him recently, even Pansy. She had started to talk to him less, she didn't whine to him about much of anything anymore. Blaise was still there on the outside, but how did he really feel about talking to him in front of other people? Even Daphne, who had once tried to talk to him every chance she could get had started to ignore him completely.

"Because you need someone," Astoria said quietly, "Because you're afraid, and you can't tell anyone because they're all leaving you."

"I'm not afraid." Draco seethed, venom dripping from his words.

In truth he was afraid. He was terrified. He had been given an impossible task, and he knew as well as anyone that he wouldn't be able to carry it out. He knew when he had been given the task that he would be killed in the end for not being able to complete the task he had been given. That was the reason it had been bestowed upon him, so he could be disposed of in the end. And Merlin, he was terrified. He was going to die in a short time, he was going to loose his life.

"You are afraid Draco," Astoria said, and now she was pleading with him to admit it, "I see you when you walk through the halls, you look like you've been crying, and don't deny it! You're eyes are always red." Astoria's voice was cracking now, "And you're never quite there anymore, you always seem occupied in class as well."

"And just what am I afraid of then?" Draco asked, "Since you know me oh so well!" He was yelling at her again, he wasn't sure why he was yelling at her when she was speaking the truth.

"Of other people, of what's going to happen to you," Astoria looked down at the floor and whispered quietly, "Of him mostly." She looked back up at him, tears in her eyes, "You're afraid of him aren't you? What has he done to you Draco? What is he threatening you with?"

"I don't know who you're talking about." He knew damn well who she was talking about.

"VOLDEMORT!" Astoria yelled loudly, Draco was very grateful that no one else was sleeping there.

"Keep your voice down you idiot girl!" Draco hissed at her, She just pursed her lips angrily.

It was at that moment when another flash of lightening burst into the sky. Astoria flinched, but when the thunder boomed and seemed to shake everything, she lost it. Astoria dive-bombed into the bed that Draco was currently occupying. He wanted to cry out in pain at first, as she jostled the bed, and accidentally hit his chest. But he didn't have time to, since Astoria was burying her face in his neck. She wrapped her arms around his arm and shut her eyes tightly, not wanting to see the lightening or hear the thunder anymore.

Draco sighed. He wasn't sure exactly what he was going to do about her. He supposed he could always kick her out of his bed. Tell her she was being a whiny girl and send her back to the dungeons where her own bed was and where she belonged. But she was already attached to his arm, and she was afraid of the storm. Plus, she was wearing that nightgown, and the cold silk felt good against his bare chest.

"You're the one whose afraid." He muttered as he turned onto his side so that she was snuggling into his chest now.

"Am not." Astoria muttered, her lips moving against his collarbone. It sent a small chill down his spine. And not the chill you get when you're afraid, no the chill when you like something.

"Go to sleep before I change my mind about letting you stay." He said as he looked down at her, he really should change his mind.

This was bad. Whatever he was thinking, he needed to think the opposite. He needed to throw her out of his hospital bed right this second. But as she sighed contently, he lost the will to even fight himself about it anymore. Lighting flashed again, and this time Astoria didn't even flinch.

Astoria muttered something into his chest that sounded vaguely like a thank you and snuggled in closer, pulling the covers over her shoulder. Draco muttered about how annoying she was, but she didn't hear him because she was already asleep. Scoffing, Draco laid his head back down on the pillow they were sharing, and fell asleep himself, perfectly comfortable, and for once in less pain.

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How did you like it? Reviews are very much appreciated!! If you have a one shot request let me know and I'll see what I can do!!

Also, I changed my pen name, I had an inside thing with my previous one (Jizzy) And people kept asking about it.... So I decided to change it ;)


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